November 7 - Cardinal

A cardinal sang just for me
And I thanked him for the song
Then the sun went slowly down the west
And I had to move along

~ Johnny Cash Flesh and Blood

This cardinal is another one of the balloons that Nao Osaka has shared on his Facebook page.

Now that I have built a number of Nao's designs, it's becoming a fun puzzle to attempt to figure out how he builds these.

This one was slightly different from what I would call his typical designs because it uses some 160's as well.  I did try a few times to stay "pure", but he gets such a nice pose and face out of this balloon that I ended up just doing my best to copy it.

Nao really does have an exceptional eye for creating balloon art.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 6 - Hypno-toad

“The young girl believed and the frog became a prince. Belief made the difference to the frog and he believed. We become who we think we are.”

~ Brent M. Jones

These frogs are an attempt to copy an image Nao Osaka shared. Once again it's "classic Nao" in that it only uses 260s and yet still makes an elegant design despite the limitation.  I really like the way his style gives texture to the vocal sac under the mouth.

I thought it might be fun to make a hypnot..  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.  All glory to the hypnotoad.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 5 - Nao's Spider

Somehow the killing of a giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of a wizard or the dwarves or anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath.

~ JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit

This spider design is one that Nao Osaka teaches in a PDF I was lucky enough to have shared with me.

The design reminds me of a tarantula or wolf spider and has a nice sculpted thorax and bulbous abdomen.

Qualatex released two new colors that I purchased recently to try out, Maroon and Navy - so I built one in each.  I don't think I will be adding the colors to my "everyday" bucket, but they are nicely different from existing colors and worth keeping around for special occasions.  There is a satisfying tactile sensation in twisting them, perhaps it's the freshness of the balloons but they are nice and squishy but still seem strong.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 4 - Tiger

That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I'd had one last look at him in the lifeboat, that I'd provoked him a little, so that I was on his mind. I wish I had said to him then - yes, I know, to a tiger, but still - I wish I had said, "Richard Parker, it's over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn't have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life.”

~ Yann Martel, Life of Pi

What a great book/movie, Life of Pi.  I welled up a little in remembrance reading all the brilliant quotes looking for one about the farewell to Richard Parker.  Enjoy the farewell video here but only click if you've seen the movie! (video link)

This tiger is based on a panther that Nao taught by video during a Steve Klein webinar.  Thankfully I took good enough notes and kept pictures enough to make something similar here.  I made a few attempts before getting this straight here and once it was built I felt there were far too few stripes made out of balloons and had to sharpie it up.

I like having 4 independent and movable limbs as it gives a good deal of flexibility to poses.  At first I was going to use the pouncing tiger for the Purple image, but then then look like they're having such a fun tickle fight.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 3 - Pony

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when my fear is gone I will turn and face fear's path, and only I will remain.

~ The Litany Against Fear
Frank Herbert - Dune

I use the quote above because I'm a little bit nervous about the balloon concept for the first part of this month. For a long while I have been considering using Nao Osaka's style as a balloon concept, but it's going to be a lot of work and it's really kind of difficult.

Nao has a knack for creating fairly realistic creatures and he doesn't "cheat" by using other balloon sizes. Check out the links below for some of the designs of his that I've created from instructions and conventions I've attended, and each one is a masterpiece but each one has a fairly unique construction.

But let me also add another bit of Dune/Bene Gesserit wisdom: The harshest environment breeds the fiercest warriors.  Challenge accepted, lets do this.

I can tell you this took a LOT of balloons.  I made a number of versions of the face before settling in on something I liked.  The body was fairly straightforward as far as Nao style is concerned.  I ran into two difficulties - first, I used so many mocha balloons that I ran out and ended up having to use caramel, if you squint you can see the different color front leg and muzzle - and now you won't be able to unsee the differences.  Second, getting little stick horse legs to be the correct length and support the body weight is maddening at times.  I cheated and gave him foot pad flowers, which allowed for some better posing.

This was originally intended as a horse, but I think it would need a bigger barrel-chest and body, so lets call it a pony.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 2 - Demo-dog

"Demogorgon. Dog. Demodogs. It's a play on words. It's like a compound you put 'em together. It sounds pretty bad ass."

~ Dustin Stranger Things 2

SPOILER ALERT:  I don't believe I'm spoiling much, but you've been warned.

We just finished watching Stranger Things 2, it was some fantastic t.v. steeped in nostalgia.  I felt compelled to build a demo-dog.

I built it in such a way as the face can close - but it just looks better in "screaming" mode.  I thought about making him D'Artagnan, but I'm not sure it adds much more to the design.

This design, the body part at least is somewhat based on Nao Osaka's style. 

First, let me take a selfie.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Nao Osaka:

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November 1 - Shrunken Head

You're flying past the reef
And you're drinking shrunken heads
You wake up in the morning
And you wish that you were dead

~ Ugly Kid Joe Funky Fresh Country Club

My junior year in college (1991?) at UC Santa Barbara we lived upstairs from the band Ugly Kid Joe.  Despite the song that says otherwise, they were actually pretty good neighbors.  They partied as much as you would imagine - but didn't we all at the time?  This was before their first EP released and right after they adopted the new name. 

This balloon is one I have left over from Halloween that I delayed posting since I was working on those Surly Dudes.

Buster Balloon described this as "the easiest balloon he has ever created", but it still has a big impact.  I have made a few of these as last-minute balloons for places that I typically bring balloons to since the surly dudes are a bit big to pass through the Starbucks drive-thru window.

I have had a rainbow assortment of alien heads forever since I rarely twist in any sort of line situation, and there wasn't much besides "an alien" to use them for.  I can see this being the main usage going forward. The giant sized alien head was actually a hand-out at a balloon convention.

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Other balloon designs by or inspired by Buster Balloon:

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